The Voss rudder.

[alex_revell]

I thought it might be of interest to bring those interested up to speed on the question of the rudder from the Voss triplane. To recap. We know positively that Mrs Rhys Davids presented the rudder to the IWM in March 1920. Some three or four years ago now I mentioned this to Brad King, who was then working at the IWM and he told me that a Fokker Triplane rudder had been presented to the IWM in the 70s and as far as he could remember it had come from a Miss Nestor David and that it was the property of her father a Major David of the RFC. Brad didn’t know that one of Arthur’s sisters was a Nesta and this intrigued me enough to ask him for more details. He promised to have the correspondence photo copied and sent to me, but never did. I recently acquired a valuable contact at the IWM and asked him look into the question of the correspondence for me. He saw the people in charge of the IWM’s acquisitions and I have had a long talk with the department’s head. He confirmed to me that the rudder donated in the 70s was from a Miss Nestor David (note no ‘s’) and was her late father‘s, an E David, who was a Major in the RFC. This is the rudder now on display at the IWM,. which we know is not the Voss rudder. The intriguing thing is the similarity of the names Nesta - as opposed to Nestor - and the surname David, as opposed to Davids. It seems a fantastic coincidence that there should be two families with such similar names and both with a Fokker Triplane rudder! The head of the department has assured me that an extensive search of the stores has been carried out and there is no other, additional rudder in them. He is now having the archives searched in an attempt to find any reference to the rudder having been returned to Mrs Rhys Davids, which he thinks would probably have been when the Museum moved from the Crystal Palace to Lambeth, sometime in the early 20s, when many loaned items were returned to the original donors. He also assured me that the IWM take this matter very seriously as they feel that people are suggesting that the IWM has either lost the Voss rudder over the years, or has destroyed it, with the consequence he feels that the reputation of the museum is at stake. He has promised to let me know if the search of the archives turns anything up and I will keep everyone posted.